From Sports Illustrated
Oregon’s Arsalan Kazemi has been a key player in the Ducks’ run to the Sweet 16, but while at Rice from 2009-12 he alleged that Owls athletic director Rick Greenspan repeatedly made insulting and discriminating remarks to him, two fellow Middle Eastern players and an assistant coach, and that led to his request for a hardship waiver from the NCAA to be eligible to play this season.
According to a document obtained by SI.com, Kazemi, the first Iranian-born player in NCAA Division I men’s college basketball, alleged in his hardship waiver that Greenspan made derogatory comments referencing Al-Qaeda and the Axis of Evil when talking about Kazemi and two of his teammates.
The NCAA only grants hardship waivers under special circumstances, but in this case it gave waivers to Kazemi and his teammate, center Omar Oraby, an Egyptian who transferred to USC in September.
The 6-foot-7, 226-pound Kazemi has been instrumental for Oregon (28-8) this season, averaging 9.3 points and a team-best 9.9 rebounds per game. The 12th-seeded Ducks face No. 1 seed Louisville in a Midwest regional semifinal in Indianapolis on Friday night.
On Thursday, Kazemi, who is Muslim, declined to answer questions about the allegations he made against Greenspan in his hardship waiver request. “I won’t talk about that,” Kazemi said.
In Kazemi’s waiver request, he claimed that Greenspan told Marcos to “recruit more terrorists” on multiple occasions. He also alleged that when talking in Arabic to another player that Greenspan asked if they were having an “Al-Qaeda meeting.”
